Losing Time
by DeppsLadyRosebud
Summary: Max's POV Alec is deteriorating from the inside out.... Can Max figure out how to save him before it is to late?
1. Chapter 1

-1**Summary: **_X5-494 was built strong, fearless and indestructible… So why then is he deteriorating from the inside out? Can Max figure out why a man built stronger then most machines is falling apart before her own eyes? Can she save him before it's to late? _

**Losing Time**

_Chapter One_

- Let me start off by giving you the facts about Alec…. More importantly about the way I feel about the boy….

He is by far not my favorite person to grace this planet, however he is the only link I have to anything resembling a family… He wasn't in my group back at Manticore.. This is true, however he was genetically engineered there just the same as I was…. That was his mother ship, just as it was mine… We both had the same screwed up childhood… The same monstrous upbringing, and there are times when he is the only one who I believe can even remotely understand what I am feeling inside…

So therefore, as much as I want to beat the boy down and wring his cocky little neck… He is still in a matter of speaking all that I have to hold on to, and for that reason I need him around….

And when I watched him slipping from me, from himself…I knew I had to find a way to bring him back, to help him… Even if I'm not one hundred percent positive he would ever do the same for me.

**Day One :**

Jam Pony, the place where we work, is by far not the snazziest get up in town, but then again nothing was snazzy anymore after the great pulse… A day that will forever be written into history as the most destructive day the planet earth had ever seen….

But a person needs to make a living, so therefore, this is where I work… One of the few normal girl activities that actually exist in my life…. Alec, much to my disliking has also snagged a job at J..P. He quickly moved in on every aspect of my life… My job, my friends, even my war against crime… Also included him, ever since I blew up Manticore and released him out into the word, he has been a rash on my side that just won't go away….

But like most unfading rashes, I've learned to live with him, I just ignore him most of the time, unless he makes the task impossible… Then I yell and snap at him, until he's so annoyed he backs off…

Okay let me get back to the point here….

It was about a month ago now, and I was doing as I usually do, standing against the front desk listening to Normal, our boss, squawk at me about leaving early the pervious day, and pretending to listen… I mean what was I supposed to do? Tell him the truth? That I was some genetically revved up female and I was out fighting the big bad while he was here delivering messily packages to the unknowing public???

Yeah right… I'd be fired for sure…

So I twisted a pencil between my fingers nodding my head every now and again in an attempt to appear compliant, as I noticed Alec finally making his way through the front door….

"Typical.." I mumbled to myself before calling over my shoulder, paying him not much attention, "Your over an hour late…"

I waited for a reply, for a witty remark to be thrown back at me, but there was not so much as a word from his mouth as he continued his way toward the lockers in the back his head down eyes covered with his 'Joe Cool' shades.

"Now Get to work…" Normal grunted, ending the conversation and sending me on my way…

I stood headed back to my locker and stopped at the front of the row tilting my head a little, there stood Alec his sunglasses since removed, in front of my locker, the lock in his grasp as he studied it.

"Can I help you?" I took a few more steps closer to him closing the empty space between us…

When he looked up, I saw something in his eyes, that I had never seen before, that should not have been there, he looked confused…. Genuinely confused, almost lost…

"I think my uh. I think my lock is busted."

I felt my facial muscles scrunch in confusion and shook my head in his direction. "That's not your lock there buddy boy, that's mine, and it's attached to my locker….Yours is two more down remember?"

"Oh…" He dropped the lock and nodded, his eyes clearing up, "Right… right I knew that…"

"Yeah, I know you did, are you alright?" I tried as hard as I could to sound really concerned, when it came to Alec though questions like theses were always in vain, because he wouldn't open up even if something was wrong….

And as I expected, I got the same answer I always did… "I'm fine, I'm always fine…" He didn't even bother to look at me now as he threw his stuff into his locker and slammed it shut, showing off his manly muscles once again…

"Well alright then…." I shrugged and popped my neck turning to leave and completely erasing any worry from my mind, so he forgot his locker… A common mistake that could of happened to anyone right????

I saw OC coming toward me and grinned my usual welcoming grin in her direction, and not another Alec thought entered my mind from that moment on… Well for a while anyway.

- After lunch I returned to Jam Pony and immediately was summoned to join normal at his desk for what I guessed to be another verbal put down…

"What did I do this time Normal?" I wondered if he had finally discovered that I was the one taking the toiletries home with me at night…

"It's not what you did, it's what you will be doing…" He corrected me crossing his arms over his chest,. "We're all going to be pulling doubles around here tonight…."

"WHAT?!?!" I felt the anger already beginning to boil inside me, "I have plans tonight… I can't pull a double…" I thought now about the dinner that Logan and I were supposed to be sharing in less then five hours, he had scored a chicken from a local market… And he was going o share it with me…. I was going to be eating chicken….

"Well your going to have to cancel them…" He retorted sounding more annoying then ever his voice ripping through my brain like nails.

"But-" I cut myself off wanting to know whose fault it was this time, whose ass I was going to have to kick for making me unavailable to eat my damn chicken… "Whose fault is it this time…?"

"Mine." He cocked his brow, "I sent golden boy home…."

"Why?!" I didn't particularly care, but if I was going to suffer then I deserved an explanation didn't I?

"He delivered 3 packages in 3 hours, and that's far below his average…"

"So… maybe he's having an off day???"

"He delivered them all to the wrong addresses in the wrong sectors… I had to send Sketchy out to clean up his mess…"

I sighed, what else could I do… I had known Alec's tricks like the back of my hand, but this was by far the best he had pulled off yet to earn himself a couple of free days, he was so going to get his ass beat down for this….

He was going to have to pay…..

- So surprisingly tired from the twelve hour work day, my dinner plans having been canceled, it was finally time for me to go home, only home was not where I was headed….

I stood out in front of Alec's door, Anger boiling, no spilling over inside of me, I was going to definitely rip him a new one for this… Harder then I had ever ripped before…

If only he would answer the damn door…

I knocked louder. As anyone who knows me can tell you, patience is not my best virtue….

So I broke the door down,

The minute the door was open a thick cloud of smoke was surrounding me, the sound of Alec's smoke alarm ringing through my ears…

"Dip-shit." I mumbled to myself figuring he left the stove on when he went out and quickly made my way to the kitchen and shut off the pot that I am sure used to be boiling water, but was now bone dry….

After shutting it off, I coughed reaching over and opening the window above the stove welcoming the rush of cool air….

"I'm gonna kill him.." I mumbled to myself… Just as I picked up a sound coming from the other room, "ALEC!" I called out heading to the bedroom to investigate. There was definitely something strange going on…

I didn't bother knocking as I opened the small bedroom door and stuck my head inside…

I didn't believe what I saw…. My anger rose even closer to the surface, my eyes narrowing….

He was sitting there, just sitting there on the edge of the bed in no more than his sweat pants, as though nothing were going on, as though there weren't damn near a fire in his kitchen…

I flipped the light on. "ALEC FOR CHRIST SAKE DIDN'T YOU HEAR ME CALL-" My voice escaped me as his head tilted up and he looked at me his brows furrowed, that same lost little boy, confused look written in his eyes, that I had caught a glimpse of earlier…

"Max?" his voice was stronger then his features were saying that he was…. And I made my way into the room, "What are you doing here?"

"Saving you from a fire…" I tried to continue to sound angry, even though the look on his face had sent a chill of worry down my back…. "What the hell are you doing in here?"

"I don't…" He cut himself off and shook his head, "Nothing …"

"You don't what Alec?"

"Nothing." He repeated

"This is not funny anymore…" I warned him, "What the hell is going on with you? I mean I've heard of some pretty low things to get out of work, but you forced Sketchy to ride an extra like 4 hours today, and then I come over here to yell at you and find your stove on… and you sitting here in the damn dark hiding like a crazy person?"

"The water!" He jumped up as though that was the only part of my whole speech he had heard and forced himself past me toward the kitchen…

I fallowed, Our conversation was so not over… I wasn't done letting him have it yet, no matter how convincing his lost look act was… "Hey I'm talk-" I stopped in my tracks when I entered back into the front room and saw Alec standing there like in it's center like a horrible center piece…

His eyes were shifting and he was turning slowly in a circle…

"Alec?" I asked so totally and completely baffled by this time as I came up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder…

He jumped nearly three feet in the air and turned to look at me, and for the first time, up close and personal I saw just how much confusion was placed behind his eyes his head tilting to the side as he looked at me for answers….

"What was I… Why was I… I was coming in here for something?"

All the cocky tone was stripped from his words, as I left my hand on his shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze with a nod, "Yes… You did, but I already took care of it alright…" I didn't know what else to say… Hell I had no clue as to what was even going on… Why the hell he was acting like this….

But I can tell you one thing, the answer wasn't going to give me any more comfort then the lack there of.


	2. Chapter 2

-1_I thank you all so much for your responses to this story, I didn't know it was going to go over this well, and I will attempt to keep it updated as much as I can, as always I live to know what you are thinking to please let me know, the good the bad and the indifferent I want to hear it._

_Rosebud_

**Day One Continued…**

He jumped nearly three feet in the air and turned to look at me, and for the first time, up close and personal I saw just how much confusion was placed behind his eyes his head tilting to the side as he looked at me for answers….

"What was I… Why was I… I was coming in here for something?"

All the cocky tone was stripped from his words, as I left my hand on his shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze with a nod, "Yes… You did, but I already took care of it alright…" I didn't know what else to say… Hell I had no clue as to what was even going on… Why the hell he was acting like this….

"Oh…. Okay…" He ran a hand through his hair as though he himself was trying to figure things out, his eyes never leaving mine, his head tilting slowly to the side. "Did you um, need something? I mean was there a reason you're here?"

I drew my lip into my mouth and focused on keeping a frown from coming to my lips, I was seriously beginning to feel bad for the guy. "I need you to come with me to Logan's…" My tone sounded even enough as I finally dropped my hand from his shoulder.

"I'm kinda tired." His reply left me wondering if maybe I wasn't as cool and calm acting as I thought I was… If maybe he sensed something, and if he really was tired, then that was just to damn bad, I needed to figure out what was going on… And there was only one person who could help me do that…

"It won't take to long…" I lied, so sue me, at the rate he was going he wasn't even going to remember this conversation in a few minutes anyway…. For a brief moment I thought about how much fun it would be to screw with him… To mess with his head and then watch like a magic eraser as it all went blank again, and started over…

But when he headed for the door still dressed in only his sweat pants, the fun was gone from my thoughts… He really was lost… Did the boy not even realize he was more than half naked?

"Alec…" I groaned thinking about how long of a night this was going to be.

"Hmmm?" He turned to face me and I grabbed a shift off the back of his sofa tossing it at him, thankfully for me he was and always had been quite the slob despite the cleanliness traits they tried to instill in us back at Manticore.

"You might need to put that on."

He looked down momentarily and I couldn't help but smirk as he blushed his cheeks a light pink color that crept nearly to his eyes. If he weren't so damn annoying I might even consider the moment cute… but after all this is Alec we are talking about, and nothing he ever does is to be considered cute in any of my books.

He slipped the shirt on over his head as I stepped around and in front of him opening the door for the two of us, I slid out into the hallway and when I noticed that he had not fallowed me I turned to face him… "Are you waiting for an invite or what?" I had to keep up the banter portion of our relationship didn't I?…

But there it was again, that clueless gaze, as though he had no idea what I was talking about, no recollection of our conversation only two minutes ago… This was definitely beginning to get both scary and tediously annoying…

"I-I'm coming with you?"

"Yes." I nodded pulling him by the wrist. "We're going to Logan's… He needs us there A Sap."

I was extra happy to have ditched my jam pony ride and picked up my real bike by this time, as I handed him a helmet and climbed on to my motorcycle… I can only imagine what it would have been like trying to get him all the way to Logan's pad on my damn handle bars…

-It took only a matter of minutes to arrive at Logan's… thankfully, this being a Friday night, I knew that he would be home working on some eyes only mission and not out gallivanting like most hot and sexy guys his age….

"This is Logan's." Alec half whispered after removing his helmet as we headed up the walk way, the tone in his voice was relatively unsure as he looked at me for confirmation…

I nodded, suddenly I was beginning to really get the picture of what it was like to have an infant child… And from what I could tell, I was never going to have children…. NEVER EVER. "Yes. Yes it is."

"What are we doing here?"

I pretended not to hear his question as I opened the door for the two of us, and we made our way inside….

Sure enough there he sat, just as he always did… Logan Cale , the most predictable man god had ever created… Also one of the best looking… but that of course is beside the point…

He was hunched over slightly in his plush leather chair a pen protruding from his lips as he chewed diligently on it reading something off of the computer screen in front of him, his glasses having slid slightly down toward the end of his nose…

I crossed my arms over my chest and smirked to myself taking a mental snapshot of the man that only in my dreams was I ever truly going to be with… Before of course doing the me thing to do, and disturbing him by clearing my throat and tapping my foot on the ground hard…"Working late tonight junior?"

The pen fell from his lips and I chuckled inwardly as he whipped the corner of his mouth before turning around, he was obviously so into whatever it was he was reading that he had forgotten how to swallow….

"Uh, hey-hey Max…" I watched as his eyes shifted behind his glasses in Alec's direction. "And Alec."

"We need your help." No need to waste time with small talk, it's not really my style you know that whole Hi honey how was your day honey? Bull that most people start with? It's all pointless to me, a waste of precious air and time….

"We do?" Alec frowned a little and looked from Logan to me and back again.

"Yeah… We do…." I repeated myself again, something I really hate doing, yet I found myself doing a lot in this particular day.

"Okay.." Logan's head bobbed up and down in a nod before he leaned down to pick up the pen he had dropped before , therefore making it particularly easy for me to peek down the collar of the white tee shirt he was wearing and steal a look at his beautifully defined chest. "What can I do for you?"

I glanced to the side taking note that Alec was now looking as lost as ever studying the walls surrounding him, the walls of Logan's home, a place he had been to, a place he had seen over a hundred times. My insides began to churn and I reached out putting a hand on his forearm getting his attention…

"This is a nice place…" He shifted toward me a little and I watched out of the corner of my eye as Logan's face became masked with surprise. Ok maybe more so with confusion, as now it was his turn to clear his throat.

"Yeah…. You seem to like it every time you come here…"

I look at him swiftly and shake my head, trying to remain subtle about it, Alec having already gone back to studying the walls with the same Awed enthusiasm he has before., looking staring at everything as thought they were things he had never laid eyes on before… foreign to him.

Logan's brows furrow deeper now, and I sigh, I didn't really mean to it just came out… irritated, of course, confused, definitely…

"I've been here before?" Alec draws his lip into his mouth and blinks at me, and I find myself beginning to wonder why in the hell I am the one having to play care giver, why I'm the one whose going to have to find the answers to this complicated puzzle that only seems to be growing more and more difficult by the second….

Oh that's right… Because I'm responsible for him, for all of them, I unleashed them on to this world… I burned down Mnticore, and all of that aside, he was on some level in some sick way a part of me….

I nod in response and Logan has since stood from his seat and is making his way closer to us… I look over at him and let my eyes tell him that something is definitely not right… Even though from the look across his face, my guess is he was already well aware of that fact…

"Alec, You know um, you said you were tired before, so why don't you go and lay down in the other room?" I try to sound at ease once more, the last thing I need is to panic the guy, he's already having a bad enough day.

Logan fallows us as I take him in the other room, and he heads to the couch, I watch him for a minute and twenty-six seconds until he is stretched out and his eyes are closed, before I turn back to Logan and signal for him to fallow me back into the front room.

It was going to be a lot easier to figure this whole thing out if I didn't have to keep repeating every other word out of my mouth.

"What's going on?" He picks now to remove his glasses and wipe them with the corner of his t-shirt something he often did when he was a bit nervous… He had many nervous habits, but this, this was by far one of my favorites, because it meant for a few seconds I would get to look into his bright blue eyes and truly see them.

"I-I'm not sure." I leaned back against one of the posts in his front entry way studying him. "That's why were here… I mean when Normal told me that he delivered the wrong packages to the wrong houses this morning… I thought that you know being Alec and all he was playing a card or two to get some free screw off time…."

I rolled my neck from side to side feeling more then a little tight in the shoulder area as I continued, "But then when I went to his place to chew him out… Something is definitely wrong with him, he's losing his mind or something… He nearly set the stove on fire… And well… You saw him, this is not Alec behavior."

"No… No it's definitely not….Do you uh, do you think this is something White cooked up?"

A chill ran down my spine at the mention of that unearthly scum bag and I was once more with the shrugging, "Could be, but he didn't mention any run ins with him, I mean granted Alec is not one with the whole caring and sharing thing, but something like that I'm sure he would bring to my attention…. "

"I guess your right… But with you two being at the top of his hit list we can't be to careful."

Here goes captain obvious again warning me about the things I already warn myself about three thousand and one times everyday, I simply nod and smile, at least its good to know he worries about me… "I know." I pick up one of the small do-dads from the shelf by his entry way and begin fiddling with it, as I mentioned before I'm not one with much patience and it was definitely being tried currently.

"Whatever this is…" I feel it's important to add, looking up from the small black object in my hands. "It's getting worse… I mean at least I think it-"

Before I can finish the last word of my thought my eyes are shifted to a figure emerging from the back room and I watch as Alec's still dazed and confused form makes it's way toward the closet door looking around puzzled as he reaches for it….

Logan and I both begin to move in his direction.

"Alec." It is actually Logan who takes the reigns this time, I dunno maybe he sensed that I was becoming overly agitated or something…

"Alec… What are you doing?" His voice is surprisingly gentler than it is most of the time when words are exchanged between the two of them… I'm not to sure why but I don't think that they like each other much….

If I had to take a guess I'm sure it would be some sort of jealousy factor.

I stop moving, standing back a little As I watch Logan reach forward and place a hand on Alec's shoulder, which to my eyes appeared to be housing a small tremble… Much like the rest of his body.

"Alec, what are you doing buddy?" He repeated his entire phrase again this time adding a buddy in there as some sort of attempt to uh comfort I guess…

"I don't live here…" Alec's reply was once more unsure as he looked up, and for the first time Logan was able to see what I had already seen quite a few times that day….

Completely disoriented, his eyes burned into Logan and then into me as he chewed on his lip..

"No…" Logan cleared his throat, "No, you don't, but you were resting here remember… resting while Max and I talked about a few things?"

It was only a few seconds, but it was far to long of a gap before Alec finally answered nodding his head slowly. "Oh…"

His head then shifted back to me and I swallowed already sensing the words he was going to say, the question he was going to ask… to which I had no answer… And I felt bad, Yes I actually felt bad… Me queen of all that is emotionless… well to the outside world anyway….

"What's happening to me?"

Ding. Ding. Ding. I knew that was coming, and there was no reply I could give, so I looked to Logan, maybe he had something, some words of wisdom….

Nope his face was just as blank as mine must have been…

Maybe, if we stood there long enough, with this whole new mental eraser thing he seemed to have going on, he would forget he even asked??????

"Why don't you just go back and lay down alright? I'm sure you're just tired…." Okay. Yeah so I knew the words were lame before they even left my mouth, but what should I have said? I'm a 20 year old genetically engineered female who was created in a lab…. Not Albert Einstein…

It was better then Logan's reply which was oh wait… Nothing… So I should at least get partial credit right?

I couldn't really tell if he bought it or not though as he stood here and looked at me for another minute, just long enough for me to think that he may have already forgotten what I just said… And then turned heading back to the sofa…

Logan and I exchanging worried glances.

"I'm calling Sam in the morning… In the mean time, maybe he… Maybe both of you should just stay here?"

Sam ah yes, good old Sam, the only doctor on the planet who was willing to help those of us blessed with barcodes on our necks…. Well the only non-evil doctor willing to help us… Maybe he would have the answers…

Then again maybe not….


	3. Chapter 3

-1**Day Two **

I don't sleep. Well okay it's not that I don't sleep… But I don't need to sleep, so it was a piece of cake for me to stay awake and keep watch over Alec as he slept. You know just in case he woke up and didn't have a clue where he was, or he panicked or something. Thankfully though the night was without incident and Alec slept through without so much as a sound spread eagle on Logan's couch snoring like a Rhino, something that had he done back at Manticore he would have definitely gotten in trouble for.

Manticore, just a longer word for hell as far as I'm concerned, and longer I sat there studying the X5 sleeping before me, the more I was able to convince myself that this… Whatever this was, happening to Alec, was their fault.

A person can only stare out the window at the dilapidated city below for so long, before boredom grabs hold of them and they begin to feel restless… This was my current state, as I tore my eyes from the rain stained window and glanced at the clock above the TV. It was only thirteen minutes after five in the morning, I still had at least two hours to kill before Logan would drag his grumpy ass out of bed. Then it would be another hour before he would be remotely awake enough to focus on the matter at hand.

So what was I going to do with myself? I had one hundred and eighty minutes of silent solidarity to suffer through, and D found my eyes working their way once more toward Alec's slumbering form.

On a normal night I would never find myself envious of the rest of the world tucked away in their beds dreaming , snoring and let us not forget drooling all over themselves, I mean to me sleep is a waste of perfectly usable hours, there are so many more exciting things to see then the inside of your eyelids.

Not at this moment though, at this moment, I was exceedingly jealous of the sleeping population, because at least they were doing something, sure it wasn't much of a something, but it was something. Not me though, I just kept watch, like a good solider.

I shook myself from my own pity and made my way into Logan's kitchen, if I couldn't sleep like a normal person at least I could eat like one….

Taking a peek inside a sly grin came to my lips, you could always count on eyes only to keep the fridge stocked up, it was like he knew I was going to come and raid it at any minute, it was filled with my favorite things.

I pulled out bread and eggs, butter, juice and the small bowl of fruit from the top shelf kicking the door closed behind me as I set them down on the counter.

Most women love to cook, I hear that some of them even live for it. I however am not one of those woman, and I never will be one of them. The lovely scientist who put me together must have forgotten to put some chef in my cocktail or something… I don't know.

There are a few things though, that I can manage thanks to watching O.C. sputter about the kitchen every morning, showing me everything I needed to know, even when she didn't know that's what she was doing.

Anywho, I busted the first egg into the pan and dug out the little slimy thing with a fork and I was just about to do the same to egg number two when my breakfast fun was quickly disturbed.

I had never been more glad to possess supersonic hearing then I was at that very moment, it was like… Like a tapping, someone's foot almost against the ground, and it was coming from the other room, where I had left Alec not even ten minutes pervious.

Thinking that maybe one of the boys had decided to rise and shine a little on the early side, I turned the fire off and made my way back into the front room stopping dead in my tracks when my eyes saw what they saw…..

I felt nauseated almost instantly as the small thumping sound grew louder, and I tried to swallow the lump in my throat. Alec's right arm which had previously been dangling off of the sofa was now jerking uncontrollably in some sort of spasm his bones popping with each thrust as his hand smacked into Logan's coffee table over and over again.

"Alec." I was by his side in what one would literally consider a flash kneeling down next to him, his eyes were open, wide and fearful as he didn't even bother to look in my direction when I called for him, he was to busy staring helplessly at his dancing limb.

I drew in a deep breath and fought against my own panic I clasped my hand around his and the tremor was strong enough to make my body quiver.

"LOGAN!" I cursed myself hearing the unsteady tone of my own scream as I shot my gaze back down to Alec who was now looking to me for answers… AGAIN.

"It's alright," I sighed and swallowed trying to wet my throat, it's funny how when you tell a conscious lie your throat automatically double clutches on you . "Your okay." I realized at this moment how terrible my bedside manner really was and began wondering if they offered some sort of classes somewhere about counseling the sick and where I could enroll.

"LOGAN!" I felt like I have been crouching there next to Alec, his eyes burning into me for hours, days, weeks… but I knew it had only been a minute, because that's what I do when my nerves begin to fray I count somewhere in the back of my mind I begin counting and the numbers won't stop rising until whatever the hell is bothering me disappears… Or I make it disappear.

"What?!?!" Logan's voice was anything but soothing against my quickly frazzling nerves as he rolled into the living room still in only his night shorts.

"What yourself." I shot back in a growl still holding tight to Alec's hand in my own.

Logan's eyes caught sight of what was happening and he immediately made his way closer to the two of us.

"Alec." He was surprisingly calm which made me more than a little jealous, how come he always got to keep his cool? I was the one housing genetically altered DNA not him, but no he was always the damn Marlon Brando of the situations his voice collected and calm.

Alec didn't move, other then the shifting of his eyes, which had still been focused on me, in Logan's direction.

"Did you do something? Do you know how this happened?"

"I had only been in the kitchen about ten minutes." I scowled immediately jumping to the defensive in a classic me move.

"And he was sleeping when you went in there?"

"Of course he was he was sound-" My words trailed off as the shaking of the hand in my own subsided and instinctively I began to rub it with my palms turning my attention back to Alec.

"Are you alright?" I ask knowing that the question is a dumb one, but unable to think of anything else to fill in the silence.

"I-I don't understand," He mumbles a little and frowns, "I was sleeping, and all the sudden this pain, it was shooting up my arm and I opened my eyes and……" His voice trailed off and I watched, literally watched as his eyes went from strong hazel orbs those of a warrior, to confused and childlike.

"And then what?" Logan pressed gently and I wondered if he had noticed the same thing as I had, the sudden vacancy … It was all so spooky and it definitely had my skin crawling.

I shook my head a little as Alec's eyes turned to Logan and he swallowed looking at him, blinking a few times.

"Alec? What happened after you opened your eyes?" He tried again but I could tell by the defeat in his voice that he knew there was no answer coming his way.

Something didn't feel right as I continued rubbing the hand in my grasp, I looked down and instinctively I drew my lip into my mouth and began chewing on it.

"I don't…I don't know." The whisper, the words were broken as they came from Alec's lips and I forced my suspicions aside glancing back up at him.

"That's alright…" I kept my voice low in an attempt to keep it sounding normal, "Logan would you go get him a glass of water or something?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Max?" Uh oh I could tell from the tone carried in his voice that there was more questions on the tip of his tongue as I had to force a smile on my lips, it was amazing to me how hard it was to smile in a time like this, it feels like what I imagine going to the dentist would. My whole mouth ached and my throat was once more unbelievably dry. This just sucked.

"Hmmm?"

"Wh-What are we doing here?" His eyes were moving around slowly in their sockets, and I realized that even with his memories slipping, he knew somewhere inside of him that something was faltering, it was like he knew that there were pieces missing or something, holes in his brain somewhere. I wished I had the answers, I wished I was quick enough to think of a lie suitable enough for this situation, but for some reason… Looking at him, right there before me so vulnerable so scattered, not a single excuse, not a single story found it's way into my thoughts.

So I settled for the truth… Well part of the truth I should say, hell if I tried to tell him everything something told me that by the time I got half way through my tale that he wouldn't remember much of what I had told him anyway.

"Logan is working on something for us, remember? We came here last night. I picked you up at your apartment and we headed over here, we needed his help."

"Why?" Three letters, one little word, and an answer long enough to fill three full pages to go along with it… Even if the answer made little sense and contained no useful information.

"Your having some troubles with your memory." I told him shortly and popped my neck, another one of my many nervous habits, I quickly thought back to the night before and to Logan's suggestions about White, deciding that it was definitely worth a shot at least asking about it… Maybe we would get lucky and he would remember something, anything for us to go off of…

"Alec, did you um, did you run into any old friends recently.. Like that scum bag White? Anyone who could of done this to you?"

"Done what to me?"

Had he really already forgotten what I just said??? This was not much on the scale of fun. I don't really know what I expected to happen, maybe I was hoping for some sort of miracle, for him to blurt the answers out and piece everything together for me?

And again I say… Yeah right.

I was thankful when I heard Logan approaching behind me and I finally stopped rubbing Alec's now relaxed Limb taking the glass of water with a subtle and gentle smile. Careful of course not to let my fingers so much as graze Logan's flesh. "Thanks."

He nodded and cleared his throat a little, "No problem, I think since we're all up I'm going to go call Sam now and see when would be a good time for us to head out his way."

"Sam?" Alec whispered a little and I looked at him just in time to watch his eyebrows furrow.

"The doctor." I stated bluntly, finally realizing that the shorter the answers were that I gave to him the easier it was going to be on the both of us.

"Are You sick?"

"No Alec, you are, but we're going to figure this out, you just drink that up and try to relax and get some more rest alright?" Obviously Logan did not have the same short answer philosophy that I did as he turned to head back into the other room.

I turned my full attention back to Alec now and made sure to keep that painful smile plastered against my lips, anything had to be better then the look of confusion I was feeling engulfing my insides..

"I don't, I don't feel sick." I watched as he began eyeing the glass of water that I was still mindlessly holding on to.

"I know." I leaned forward a little and placed the cup into his right hand, the one I had previously been massaging , "You look a little thirsty there. Drink some of this and then-" I silenced my words and lunged forward just in time to catch the glass as I watched it in some sort of slow motion time reel fall from Alec's gripless hand and plummet toward the hard wood floor.

His eyes were wide as he saw what just played out before him and he looked from the cup in my hand to my face, his face read as though he thought I were some sort of circus freak, or Manticore alumni, with a second head sprouting out of my shoulder,

"Alec." I cast my gaze downward wanting and needing to free myself from the torture of his pitiful look. So I decided to concentrate on the glass in my hand as well, there wasn't much else I could do now was there…. I looked at the glass and at Alec's hand surprised he was remaining silent another non-Alec thing to do.

It was as though he hadn't even tried to grab- to grip the cup. "Aren't you thirsty?"

"Ye-yeah." I heard him swallow hard and draw in a breath as he still lay his body out stretched on the couch.

"Well, here…" I set the glass down and leaned over even more helping him to a sitting position, flashes of infants and their mothers dancing through my brain like a montage from a horrible sappy woman's movie as I tried to shake then from my mind.

Alec's body seemed heavier,…. Heavier then usual anyway. As I took a minute to look him up and down and sighed when his eyes clouded and typical of the last few days he began to look around the room with a tinge of fear, of unknowingness…

I took my hand and gently put it on his chin forcing him to look at me, his hazel eyes forcing themselves into me like two small demons and I swore I swore I saw his lips beginning to tremble, as though he was going to cry or something… Something that was unheard of for a solider, for an X5.

"Your safe here Alec, your with me." I tried my damndest to sound positive and reassuring before turning my attention back to the latest problem,

As X5's we are build strong, durable and we have very precise and sharp reflexes, it has to do once again with that whole super human genetic coding deal that we got running through our veins, and I won't lie, more often than not that part of me definitely comes in handy, hardly ever spill the milk or anything else for that matter and it makes it a hell of a lot easier to keep things clean….

Anyway that point being that, being built like that… Alec should not be so clumsy as to drop a cup that I put directly into his grasp….

I couldn't help but swallow a few times, it was as though I were stuck in some horrible nightmare…. And things just kept getting more and more bogus by the second, not to mention overly confusing, and as I sat there looking at him, wondering what the hell was going on inside of that normally cocky and eccentric head of his I had to resist the urge to bounce, to blaze and never look back.

I swear to you each day the run in me screams louder and louder and sometimes all I can think about is finding a way to bail, to get out of this hell hole and never look back, but as quickly as the thoughts come to be, as fast as they appear, I push them aside…..

I look at my friends, and the people around me, and know that no matter how bad I think I might have it, how ill my life seems, at least I have the power to do something about it, unlike them, so I must stick around, kick ass, and protect the innocent…

Which brings us back to Alec, right now, not every day, but right now, he was the innocent, the one who needed my help.. The only difference was I still didn't have any idea what it was I was going to have to fight against… What it was causing this, and that seemed to be getting stronger and stronger with each passing nano-sec.

I held the glass out knowing that by this time Alec had forgotten about the minutes before us and was once more basking in blissful confusion, "Thirsty?"

"Uh… Yeah." His head was turned so much to the side now, cocked in confusion that it nearly was resting on his shoulder as he sat there studying me, but I took note that he didn't reach for the cup in my hand.

"Here…" I placed it against his palm and watched as his fingers slowly worked their way around the glass with a listless and weak demeanor.

As I let go I kept telling myself that I was going to let what happened, happen and I was going to see how he reacted,

Sure enough the small glass filled with water went straight for the ground like a reverse rocket and I watched my eyes darting from the cup to Alec and then back again and again… But he did nothing, not a thing except watch as I had been doing as a loud and nerve wrecking shatter filled out ears and glass shards flew across the wooden floor of Logan's apartment…

"Well that didn't go well…" I mumbled under my breath already hearing a hurried Logan headed towards us, having exchanged his hell on wheels for bionic legs, making him feel more my equal then my inferior.

Alec hadn't said a word he was just looking down now, looking down his gaze burning into the flesh of his hand. I could sense the angry, the fear, every emotion pouring from his body as though it were some sort of title wave headed directly for me… I placed my hand on his knee and gave it an attention stealing squeeze.

"Max?!?!" Logan's voice was breathless with panic as he made his way through the door jam and into the same room as us.

"We're alright." I whispered looking up momentarily and giving him a uncomfortable smile. "Alec just dropped a glass is all, don't worry I'll take care of it."

"I-I did?"

Logan came and took a seat next to me on the coffee table facing the again disoriented young man as I nodded in his direction, "But that's alright, we all have accidents."

I didn't want to do what I was about to, I didn't want to find out that things were getting even worse that we were now knee deep in the septic tank and there was no hope of a rescue anytime soon, but I had to, I needed to know….

Logan was watching intensely and I knew that his concerns were the same as mine as I slid my hand into Alec's and looked at him, forcing myself to look past the worry and discomfort in his eyes, "Alec, can you do something for me?"

"Do we have a mission?" His left brow cocked a little and I shook my head.

"No, no nothing like that I just I need you to squeeze my hand alright, just squeeze it as hard as you can… Can you do that?"

His eyes shifted down and he looked at my hand placed in his, he looked for a long, long time, the seconds passing like hours….

"Don't look at it though… Look at me ok?" I looked to Logan for some help.

Alec's face came up again and still he did nothing, he just looked from me to Logan.

"Squeeze Max's hand Alec." Logan's voice was still kind and calm but at the same time carried a sense of order,

I made sure to put my free hand under Alec's chin so that he could not look down, "Keep looking at me…"

One…. Two….. Three…Four…..Five….Si- I had already made it to six before I felt the smallest fidget against my flesh from the fingers placed against mine, and my insides shuttered with a disgusting sickness,

I looked toward Logan and shook my head just slightly before realizing by the look on his face he saw what I did, and knew what I knew….

I cleared my throat loudly and rose to my feet having to actually concentrate to keep my knees steady, "So uh, Sam is ready for us right? We should get going…." I leaned down to pick up the pieces of the broken water glass and glanced upward when Alec's insecure and small voice filled my ears…

"Where are we going?"

I watched him for a minute, and my heart ached for him, his Adam's apple bobbed mercilessly as a flash of confusion blinded him like the suns light and he began to look around again this time his uneasy eyes settling on Logan…

"Who are you?"

I heard the glass fall from my hand in a moment of shock and I swallowed loudly, This was definitely not good.

_I hope that everyone who celebrates had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and I hope that you enjoyed this chapter, you know every time I write a story, there is always one part that I am unsure of, and that is this chapter, I just don't feel as though it flowed to well… or something, but anyway it's not up to me it's up to you, and I hope you liked it. As always let me know what you think, and I think you for your lovely replies to the last part. _

_As for the whole Max and Logan thing, remember we are inside her head so there are bound to be a few off the wall thoughts, but all of you Max and Alec fans (like myself) are in for a bit of a treat soon enough._

_Rosebud_


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